Mike Smyth: Eby set to tackle 'mind-blowing' money laundering in B.C.

The government has already made interim changes based on Peter German's work, ordering casinos to do stricter background checks on deposits of $10,000 or more, and posting anti-crime regulators around the clock at high-volume casinos like The River Rock in Richmond.Francis Georgian / PNG

Columnist Mike Smyth writes about Attorney General David Eby's plan to crack down on rampant money laundering in B.C. casinos. Eby will release a 250-page report and action plan Wednesday.

British Columbians should prepare for a “mind-blowing” experience when David Eby releases a bombshell report this week on the extent and scale of criminal money laundering in B.C. casinos.

That’s the word from the province’s crusading attorney general as he prepares to unveil a long-awaited 250-page report containing 45 recommendations to clean up dirty casino operations in the province.

“When I was first briefed on this problem, it was truly mind-blowing,” Eby said. “I want to give British Columbians, as much as possible, the same type of briefing I got: Where we’re at, where we’re going and why changes are so badly needed.”

The report — prepared by former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German and set for release Wednesday — will explain how B.C. became notorious around the world as a money-laundering hotbed, Eby said.

“It raises squarely the issue of British Columbia — and specifically Vancouver — as a hub of international money laundering and the chronology of how we got there,” he said.

Eby launched the investigation after he was sworn in as the province’s top lawyer and received a briefing from the government’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch on money laundering in casinos.

“I was told, ‘Prepare to have your mind blown,’ and it was,” he said.

Eby said he was shown shocking casino surveillance videos of high-rolling gamblers entering casinos with vast amounts of cash.

“Individuals wheeling large suitcases packed with $20 bills,” he said. “A guy lugging a hockey bag full of $20 bills into a casino. Others bringing stacks of cash to casino cages.”

Eby told a House of Commons committee in March that much of the money appeared to flow from organized criminals in China, who discovered Metro Vancouver casinos were an easy destination to launder their ill-gotten loot.

“International intelligence officers were taught something called ‘the Vancouver model’ of money laundering,” he said. “The gambler walks the illicit cash into the casino, buys chips, gambles, and on leaving either cashes out, receiving a cheque, or carries the chips out of the casino.

The report coming this week has been sitting on Eby’s desk for months, a delay Eby said was required because B.C. government officials and departments are named in its pages.

“It involves identifiable groups and individuals,” he said.

Those groups include the gaming enforcement branch and the B.C. Lottery Corp.

“We went through a really rigorous process to ensure people had a chance to respond to allegations,” Eby said.

He said the new NDP government didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the previous Liberal government with its unfair firing of provincial prescription-drug researchers, leading to lawsuits, apologies, reinstatements and costly compensation payments.

“The health-firings debacle was front of mind,” he said. “We wanted to avoid a situation where somebody was unfairly named or people were not given a chance to respond to allegations.”

Despite that, he said no public officials have been fired or disciplined as a result of the investigation.

“Nobody has been fired,” he said. “The report is intended to address the systemic issues that led to the failures we saw.”

The government has already made interim changes based on German’s work, ordering casinos to do stricter background checks on deposits of $10,000 or more, and posting anti-crime regulators around the clock at high-volume casinos like the River Rock in Richmond.

But Eby said the shady activity in casinos could just be the tip of B.C.’s money-laundering iceberg.

“There is an appearance of a link between casinos, the real estate market, the fentanyl crisis and drug dealing around the province,” Eby said, adding German has also flagged suspicious financial activities in the B.C. horse-racing industry and the sale of expensive luxury cars.

“This is not an issue isolated to casinos,” Eby said. “This is something we need to deal with in our larger economy.”

Cleaning up money-laundering rackets will come at a cost, Eby warned, acknowledging B.C. casino profits will take a hit.

He pointed to the recent case of Dan Bui Shun Jin, a suspected international money launderer arrested at the River Rock in May. Jin is accused of laundering more than $855 million though Australian casinos alone.

Police said they are investigating Jin’s activities in Canada, Australia, the U.S., Macau and Singapore.

“When you have someone like that coming into a B.C. casino to gamble, they’re going to obviously leave some significant money on the table,” he said. “If we’re arresting customers like that — instead of letting them gamble — that will have an impact on government finances.”

He said the government has already booked a $30-million hit to budget revenues in the current fiscal year because of the planned money-laundering action.

“The crackdown will have an impact on government finances,” he said. “But I am 100-per-cent committed to dealing with this and ensuring the province is law-abiding.”

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